Russia-Bashing Swedish Ex-Premier Becomes Aide to Russian Tycoon

Carl Bildt, a Swedish politician and diplomat who served as prime minister and foreign minister, has been recruited as an advisor to LetterOne, an investment firm owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.

Commenting on his recruitment for the Luxembourg-based investment fund, Bildt told Russian media that he is "pleased to work with a group of successful and talented entrepreneurs."

Bildt, who served as prime minister of Sweden between 1991-1994, would go on to serve as the country's Foreign Minister between 2006-2014.  The politician has long been known for his anti-Russian rhetoric, going back to the 2008 Georgian war in South Ossetia, where he received an official rebuke from the Russian Foreign Ministry after comparing Russia with Hitler's Germany.

Bildt, whose government supported the Maidan coup d'état last February, would later note in The European magazine that "these are the people that we need to support," adding that Europe must stand united against a "revisionist, reactionary Russia that is trying to do things in Europe that clash with our values and interests." The Russophile earlier noted that in his capacity as foreign minister, Bildt funneled tens of millions of Swedish krona toward assisting the Ukrainian NGOs, think tanks and other groups which would later go on to form the nucleus of the Euro-Maidan.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe in March, Bildt, who is also one of the principle authors of the EU's Eastern Partnership initiative, noted that the EU "should have reacted more strongly toward Russia when they started to misbehave in the summer of 2013." Noting that Europe and the US should "stay the course" in its sanctions against Russia, Bildt also stated that Ukraine should seriously be considered as a candidate for entry into the EU.

Oddly, the announcement of Bildt's status as advisor to LetterOne was publicized just hours after he was confirmed to serve as an advisor to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. In his official capacity, Bildt is meant to serve as an advisor on Ukraine's Europe-oriented reform process.

Honoured to be part of the International Advisory Group to Ukraine President @poroshenko. http://t.co/NESwa15Did

— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) 13 мая 2015

Bildt's apparent tendency toward flip-flopping on Russia is not new. The conservative Moderate Party politician was criticized in Sweden in the mid-2000s after becoming a shareholder in Vosotok Nafta Investment Ltd, a company largely owned by Russian energy companies. In the 1990s, Bildt was also involved in a scandal with Swedish energy firm Lundin Oil, which Human Rights Watch accused of human rights abuses in Sudan.

For his part, Mikhail Fridman noted that his new hires, among them Bildt and former British Trade Minister Mervyn Davies, who has been named deputy chairman of LetterOne's board of directors, will make an "invaluable contribution" to his company.

Fridman, who made his fortune in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has since gone on to purchase RWE Dea AG, the oil and gas subdivision of German electric utilities company RWE, for $5.7 billion US, giving the company assets in Germany, Norway, Poland, as well as Turkmenistan, Algeria, Egypt and Libya. Last month, UK Energy Minister Ed Davey sent Dea UK and LetterOne notices warning of a revocation of drilling licenses in the North Sea if they are not within a six month time frame.

Some Russian analysts have speculated that Fridman's Bildt hire is meant as a strategy of distancing himself from the Kremlin in order to help LetterOne fight off the British government's demands that the company sell its UK assets.